The storm had broken overnight, leaving behind a world soaked and trembling beneath a fragile, bruised sky.
Kael sat awake beside Seris, his back against the broken stone of the ruined hearth.The embers had long since died, but he did not move to rekindle them.The air between them was warmer than any fire.
She slept still, curled loosely beneath the tattered cloak he'd draped around her, her breathing light but steady.
Kael could hardly tear his gaze from her, from the faint smudge of a healing bruise at her temple, the fine trembling of her fingers as she dreamt.
How many times had he seen her like this? Too many, he thought, a bitterness curling inside him.
And yet, not enough.
Kael's hand drifted, slow, unsure, until his fingers brushed a strand of hair from her face.
It clung stubbornly to her cheek, and for a reckless heartbeat, he allowed his fingertips to linger there.
The contact jolted something fierce and aching through his chest. How many lifetimes had he spent yearning for her like this? How many dreams had he killed, believing he could ever be close enough to keep her safe?
He closed his eyes, the weight of the night pressing down on him.
Seris stirred.
A low, broken sound escaped her, not quite a sob, not quite a word.
Kael froze, hand half-lifted, watching her face twist into a grimace of fear and sorrow. She was dreaming.
"Not again..." she whispered into the darkness, voice so small, so broken, it cleaved him in two.
"Don't leave me—"
Kael's hand clenched at his side. He did not wake her.
Instead, he watched, helpless, as she fell deeper into whatever ghosts haunted her.
And then, something strange happened, he felt it, a tug, deep and twisting in his soul.
A memory that was not entirely his own.
FLASHBACK
Snow.
A palace of white stone, its towers piercing a sky heavy with winter.
Kael stood at the gates, sword dripping crimson, heart hammering wildly in his chest.
Ahead of him, beyond the broken throne room doors, she waited, not as the Seris he knew now, but something else.
She wore a crown then, shattered at her feet. Blood streaked her gown,her bare hands clenched into fists at her sides.
"You should have killed me," she said, and the words were not accusation, but despair.
Kael remembered reaching for her, remembered the way she had crumpled into his arms, sobbing in a voice too broken for words.
He had kissed her then, not out of passion, but out of desperation, grief, a need so raw it seared through both of them.
"I would die before I raised my hand against you," he had rasped against her temple.
"Then you will die for me," she had whispered, burying her face against his chest.
The snow had fallen heavier then, a silent shroud over their ruin.her bare hands clenched into fists at her sides.
"You should have killed me," she said, and the words were not accusation, but despair.
"Forgive me," he had whispered against her hair.
"I always did," she had answered, just before the world collapsed around them.
Kael jerked awake, heart pounding, blinking hard at the gray dawn leaking into the shelter.
Seris shifted again, pulling the cloak tighter around herself, and whimpered softly.
Kael's chest burned.
He could not remember everything, not yet, but that fragment left him gasping.
Had they truly known each other before?
Had he failed her once, and now fate had given him this single, impossible chance to do it differently?
He didn't know, all he knew was that he would die before he let her be hurt again.
The first weak light of morning trickled into the clearing.
The broken trees stood silent witness to the night's violence.
Somewhere, far away, a bird called, thin and uncertain.
Kael forced himself to move, gathering what little they had.
Food, water and weapons, they could not linger.
The empire's reach would stretch even here, eventually.
And whoever had been hunting Seris, they would not stop.
He turned to her again, kneeling beside her sleeping form.
Her lashes fluttered. Her lips parted in a soft, soundless breath.
Kael's hand hovered above her shoulder, hesitant.
He wanted, gods, he wanted, to touch her. To wake her gently, to whisper that she was safe now, that she would always be safe.
But the words stuck in his throat, bitter and choking.
Safe. There is no safe place left for us.
Still, when he finally spoke, it was with a tenderness he did not know he possessed.
"Seris," he said, voice low and rough.
"It's morning. We need to move."
She stirred, lashes lifting slowly, confusion clouding her eyes before recognition settled there.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
The fragile dawn stretched between them, golden and gray.
And then she nodded, small, almost imperceptible, and pushed herself upright.
Her body betrayed her; she winced sharply, clutching at her side.
Kael was at her side instantly, steadying her without a word.
Their eyes met, a clash of exhaustion, gratitude, guilt.
And something else, something dangerous, something beautiful.
Neither spoke it aloud, neither dared.
Hours later, as they moved carefully through the ruined wood, Kael felt her falter beside him.
Without thinking, he caught her hand.
She stiffened, but did not pull away.
For one breathless heartbeat, he allowed himself to believe that maybe, just maybe, this time, they would not be torn apart.
Not by the empire, not by fate, not even by their own ghosts.
As they picked their way through the shattered forest, Kael let his gaze drift once, just once, over his shoulder.
The ruined throne was little more than a memory now, a jagged silhouette against the dying night.
But he could still feel it, the pull of it, like a chain wrapped around his ribs.
It was there they had made their promises and where they had broken them, too.
He wondered if she remembered.
Seris stumbled again, cursing softly under her breath.
Without thinking, Kael tightened his grip on her hand, steadying her with a gentleness that startled even himself.
She looked at him then, a quick, flickering glance.
A thousand unspoken things passed between them in that single heartbeat: grief, gratitude, longing... and something more dangerous still.
Kael swallowed hard and turned his face away, he could not afford to want her, well at least not now, not yet.
But gods, he did.
More than anything.